Profile on Composer: Cy Coleman

"A permanent gem in Broadway's crown." So said theatre critic Clive Barnes in praise of Cy Coleman and his nearly half-century of contributions to the American musical. Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, the son of Russian immigrants. His mother owned an apartment house in the Bronx, where Seymour started playing music at age 4 when a tenant vacated, leaving behind a piano. The building's milkman heard Seymour play and was so impressed that he introduced Seymour to his son's piano teacher. Seymour made his Carnegie Halldebut at age 7. He attended the High School of Music and Art and at age 16 changed his name to "Cy Coleman" on the advice of a music publisher.

While attending New York College of Music, Coleman formed a jazz trio and earned money playing in cocktail lounges and clubs, where his enthusiasm for jazz and standards drew him away from classical music. He met lyricist Carolyn Leigh in the early 1950s and embarked on a fruitful but stormy collaboration. Coleman's pop-jazz melodies combined with Leigh's sophisticated, often suggestive lyrics to produce songs like "Witchcraft" (1957) and "The Best Is Yet To Come" (1959). Recorded by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman and Leigh's classic songs have been described as "the ultimate musical distillation of sophisticated cocktail party banter of the period."

In 1960, Coleman and Leigh were brought on to compose a Broadway vehicle for Lucille Ball. The show, Wildcat, had a short run, but the song "Hey Look Me Over" became a standout hit. Next, the team scored Little Me (1962), book by Neil Simon, directed by Bob Fosse, and starring Syd Caesar. Despite its success, this was the final collaboration for Coleman and Leigh, who were fighting constantly.

Coleman continued to work with Fosse and Simon and paired with lyricist Dorothy Fields for Sweet Charity. The score included the numbers "Hey Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now." Coleman and Fields followed up with Seesaw, a modest success, featuring a young Tommy Tune. Fields passed away in 1974, and Coleman next worked with Michael Stewart on I Love My Wife (1977).

When approached about composing On the Twentieth Century with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Coleman was initially reluctant. He thought the 1920s pastiche had been overdone, but when he realized that the larger-than-life characters could be musically expressed using a light opera style, he got on board. Coleman won his first Tony Award for Original Score for this show in 1978.

Coleman's next triumph was the circus-style show Barnum (1980). He later took the Tony two years in a row, for the film-noir inspired City of Angels (1990) and the country spectacular The Will Rogers Follies, again with Comden and Green (1991). His last Broadway show was the gritty urban musical The Life (1997). For each new show, Coleman established a unique musical idiom and never repeated a style.

Remarking on his work ethic, Coleman said, "I don't like to let go. I will drain to the last drop." Until his death he was was juggling multiple projects: a 2005 revival of Sweet Charity and several new shows, including a stage version of Wendy Wasserstein's children's book Pamela's First Musical. He also continued to perform his own cabaret act regularly at Feinstein's. Coleman passed away in February 2004; the following evening, the lights in all Broadway theatres were dimmed to honor his memory.

AMERICAN OPERETTA

At first, Cy Coleman was reluctant to compose On the Twentieth Century because he felt there had been too many other musicals set in the '20s and referencing popular music of that decade. But as he considered the characters' large personalities and "tikka-tikka-tikka" patter sound of a train, Coleman was excited to reference operetta, also known as "light" or "comic" opera, which had its peak popularity in America in the 1920s.

The origins of operetta go back to 19th-century Europe, with Jacques Offenbach in France and the ever-popular W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan in England. For his inspiration, Coleman drew largely from two great composers of American operetta: Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml. Both came from Eastern Europe in the first decade of the 20th century. They struck musical gold collaborating with American lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. How else could Friml, a piano virtuoso from Prague, dream up Rose-Marie, an operetta set in the Canadian Rockies, with lovers yodeling the "Indian Love Call"? Romberg's great success, The Desert Song, traded on the success of American movie star Rudolph Valentino and the adventures of Lawrence of Arabia.

With sweeping scores and romantic stories, operetta appealed to middle-class audiences who wanted something in between the rough entertainments of the Bowery and the highbrow refinements of the Metropolitan Opera. With the Great Depression, the attraction of operetta's grandness shifted to more sophisticated musical comedy. Productions of Friml and Romberg shows are rare today, but their works would influence musical theatre for many decades. Hammerstein went on to pen the books and lyrics for some of Broadway's greatest romantic musicals, includingShowboat, The King and I, and South Pacific.

On the Twentieth Century is now in previews at the American Airlines Theatre. For more information and tickets, please visit our website.